On Saturday, the Metro Human Relations Commission launched a survey that the body hopes will offer insight into how speakers of different languages are able to access public services in Nashville. The survey is part of a broad study evaluating language access across Metro departments and the barriers facing Nashvillians who don’t speak fluent English.
“We want to understand what their experience has been like with accessing Metro Nashville services, specifically in a language other than English, so that we can deliver services at a high-quality level to everyone,” says Gavin Crowell-Williamson, a research analyst and Title VI coordinator with the Metro Human Relations Commission.
The survey represents phase two of the Metro-wide language access assessment. The first focused on Metro departments — collecting data on their translation services, reviewing related policies and conducting self-assessments. Now the focus is on everyday Nashvillians who need help from those departments.
MHRC has been working with community organizations like Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Conexión Américas and others while designing the study, and those partners will be vital to raising awareness about the survey.
The survey will be available in 10 languages: Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Nepali, Somali, Tagalog, Vietnamese, English and three Kurdish dialects.
The survey will be available online, but Crowell-Williamson says MHRC plans to work with community partners to distribute flyers and even physical copies of the survey at pop-up events and at their facilities.
The survey is not time-limited, and will instead conclude when MHRC reps feel they have an adequate number of responses that accurately reflect the number of Nashvillians who speak a language other than English.
Crowell-Williamson says language access is about more than just translation. “We're also trying to think broader than that,” he says. “How can departments be more proactive about language services, so that from the moment you go to whatever department's website, they already have documents translated, they already have tools so that you don't have to go through an extra layer that an English-speaking person wouldn't.”
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Emergencies like January's ice storm demonstrate the value of making information available in multiple languages: Spanish-speaking community groups like The ReMix Way provided resources to families in need, for example. Crowell-Williamson agrees that “events like Winter Storm Fern highlight the importance of the work.” But he also emphasizes that language access has been a “long-standing priority of our department.”
MHRC released a 2017 report that laid the foundation for the current study and stressed the importance of the work as Nashville’s immigrant populations grew. That report found that more than 75 percent of departments “interact with linguistic minorities and most are receiving requests for language assistance,” but only 35 percent of departments “have a language access coordinator and less than 30 percent have a system in place to track language assistance services.”
They also launched a language access pilot program in 2023 with the Tennessee Language Center, which partnered with MHRC and five other Metro departments. In 2024, the TLC reported it provided 6,107 minutes of interpreting services in 11 languages, created four new language access plans and “provided live interpretation for the mayor’s State of Metro address for the first time in Nashville’s history.”
Following presentations by MHRC to the Metro Council Immigrant Caucus and to Metro department heads in 2024, Mayor Freddie O’Connell allocated dedicated funds to the current language access study and to the creation of Crowell-Williamson’s role.
“It's our department's belief that one's fluency in English should not be the determining factor in accessing government services, whether that is storm-related services ... or receiving health care, reporting a crime, enrolling a child in school,” says Crowell-Williamson. “Language access is not a luxury. Especially now, it's a critical component and necessity for Metro Nashville, and that idea is really what is the impetus for this study.”
